Staff/Emily Barnes
MARIETTA — A traffic issue so contentious it pits neighbor against neighbor is brewing in Lee’s Crossing, a subdivision south of often-gridlocked Whitlock Avenue.
It will spill over into the Marietta City Council public safety committee meeting Wednesday at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
The neighborhood of more than 400 homes has found itself a victim of the cut-through culture, in which motorists will evade traffic snarls on commercial roads by taking detours through residential neighborhoods.
City Councilman Grif Chalfant represents the ward that includes Lee’s Crossing and its main roads of Trailwood Lane, Lees Trace and Manning Road.
He said the issues being debated so vigorously came to a head at a homeowners association meeting Tuesday, at which neighbors took sides on two separate questions.
Question No. 1 is whether to install six speed tables, which are asphalt platforms with ramps leading up to them. They’re meant to slow down traffic without requiring a full stop like a traditional speed bump.
The $3,000 cost of each speed table would be borne by the city.
“A lot of people don’t want them, and a lot of people do want them. Especially the ones on Lees Trace,” Chalfant said about the road where all six would be installed if approved by voters.
Question No. 2 is who can vote for or against the speed tables.
According to Chalfant, city law will allow 200 households, or about half the subdivision, to vote.
The deciding factor is access to Manning Road, a connector to Whitlock that becomes Lees Trace.
Residents of Trailwood Lane, the other half of the subdivision, have no voice in the matter.
Chalfant said they want a vote because, contrary to city engineering studies, they travel Lees Trace to exit the subdivision at Manning, which has a traffic signal, unlike the roads connecting Trailwood to Whitlock.
“The nonvoters’ biggest argument is to get to Marietta High School or Kroger, they always go through Lees Trace,” Chalfant said. “That’s why they want to vote on speed tables because they will be going over them.”
Trailwood residents may even want their own speed tables, he said, because of drivers who are new, who are texting while driving, or both.
“What brought this about was several wrecks in the last several months. Some of them have run into trees,” Chalfant said. “Out of 410 families, you have a lot of teenage drivers. And it’s not just them; some people don’t pay attention and just drive too fast.”
Opponents to the speed tables or to the process would not go on record, several citing fear of retaliation from their neighbors.
However, one concern aired was that newcomers should have investigated the subdivision’s traffic problems prior to their arrival.
Melissa Drehs, a Lees Trace resident and real estate agent, said the research she did before moving into her home in June 2010 could not have revealed the hazards she encountered.
“I knew it would be a great place to raise children because I had been experiencing the environment while my son was being babysat there,” she said. “I never anticipated my mailbox would be hit three times. Since I’ve lived here, my mailbox has been hit three times and completely knocked off.”
Drehs said her children, a boy, 6, and a girl, 4, are her main concern.
“People are angry at me that I just moved in and I’m stirring something up, but at the end of the day, if someone hits my child and God forbid kills them, it doesn’t matter how popular I am among my neighbors,” she said.
Drehs cited a conversation with another mother, who advised her not to let her children play outside the backyard, a strategy Drehs said she found impractical.
“You can tell your child not to go into the street,” she said. “But we all know that you can turn your back for a second and your biggest nightmare could be happening in front of your eyes.”
Another opposition viewpoint, that of ineligible households becoming eligible to vote through an ordinance amendment or variance, seemed like a stall tactic to Drehs.
“The ballot was supposed to go out already. The meeting was not to see if you want them. That was already determined,” she said about a December homeowners’ meeting. “People had enough time, and they didn’t voice their opinions the first time.”
Drehs said a third opposition argument was the nuisance that neighbors said would be caused by the speed tables.
“They’re not like huge speed bumps. They’re three inches off the ground and you have a ramp that leads you up. To say it will inconvenience you is a poor excuse, in my mind,” she said.
City Councilman Jim King said the five speed tables in his ward do not annoy him nor cause damage.
“There are a number of speed tables on East Park Boulevard,” he said about a road in the East Park subdivision, which borders his Brentwood Park neighborhood. “I have a low-slung sports car. If you go the speed limit of 25 mph, they don’t do a thing to your car.”
They do, however, work.
“In my opinion they’re very effective,” King said. “I have asked the citizens, and they tell me they’re happy.”
He said the five speed tables, installed about five years ago at an almost unanimous request from the 272-household subdivision, are among the only ones in the city.
City Engineer Jim Wilgus said there are three on Campbell Hill and five at Life University.
Others are in the pipeline.
“We’ve got a list of 60 locations that are looking at speed tables,” he said about subdivisions like Carriage Oaks, Hickory Hills and Whitlock Heights. “We’re getting ready to install them on Evelyn Street.”
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Let me ask you this - have you lost a family member because rescue didn't get to them fast enough? The rescue departments are against speed tables because they delay response time.
But the issue is DO ALL RESIDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE!
Be careful what you ask for. We will be destined to drive over these humps in the road for years and years to come. Streets are not meant to be humpy and bumpy,
I have to wonder if some of these people are talking about the same neighborhood. From reading some of these comments, you'd think they'd taken up residence along I-285. I encourage anybody interested to take few minutes to actually watch traffic along Lees Trace and judge for themselves if there is a serious problem in need of such drastic and expensive solution.
Of course, I guess that opinion makes me an uncaring monster who wants to see children run down in the streets or a maniac that wants to have free rein to drive my sports car 60 mph through the neighborhood. Since I am neither, I think the problem is more likely with a handful of overly uptight people (every neighborhood has them) who will never be satisfied with their neighbors driving habits until everyone slows down to 5 mph in front of their house.
Like it or not, this is seen as a major inconvenience by the majority of residents and we should ALL have a say in the matter. To say that wanting all the neighborhood residents to have a vote in the matter is a stalling tactic is utterly ridiculous and disingenuous. Lees Trace is over a mile long and we all use it everyday, going to work, schools, getting groceries, etc, etc. It already has a safe speed limit (25mph) which is followed by the vast majority of people on this road.
Despite obviously biased reports about these speed bumps by the people responsible for their installation, they do cause damage to cars, they are not safe to travel over at 25 mph (if this was the case, they would have absolutely no effect on speeding, as speeders would simply jump the bumps at 25mph and then accelerate, probably more aggressively, on the long stretches in between), and they do slow down emergency vehicles.
The fact is, these are public roadways paid for by all tax payers. They are not your personal property. They are certainly not a playground for Mrs. Drehs' unattended children. And I guarantee that if Mrs. Drehs' 6 and 4 year-old child were running out in the street alone, myself or one of her neighbors would quickly stop and make sure that they were out of danger (and probably politely remind her that she should always know exactly where her young children are playing).
At the neighborhood meeting, the city councilman said that these speed bumps were for neighborhoods with near unanimous agreement on their installation. As witnessed both at that meeting and on this article, this is clearly not the case for Lees Crossing.
You summed this issue up beautifully!
I also find it interesting that the woman who so desparately wants these speed tables will not have to go over a single one to get to her home. Wow!
How sad. Have you, Frustrated homeowner, ever considered that whoever this woman is may be more concerned about the safety of others rather than simply the convenience or inconvenience of herself? And could it be that leaving or entering the community is not the only time she uses Lees Trace? Am I wrong that using the pool and tennis court from any direction on Lees Trace would require everyone to cross at least one of the speed tables?
People beware, soon you may see speed tables all over our fine city!
Speed humps cost less than a uniformed police officer; those who complain of them because of cost or toss Obama into the conversation are beyond ignorant. This is a local matter that is addressed locally by local funds. Now, I’m sure there is a federal grant that the local city can apply for to help fund..That is a different story.
If the police department cannot enforce the speed limit on a regular basis, then the speed humps should be installed. Then again, we are asking the government to enforce common sense, existing laws and curtsey to your neighbors..
What is interesting is a neighborhood of decent, modest homes and middle income families does not want to protect their occupants, property value and property in general. Is it ignorance or arrogance?
It’s really simply, hire additional officers to enforce existing laws, and raise the tax rate or mileage rate to offset the expense, or install for a onetime fee a device that reduces the overall speed in the neighborhood and provides safety to those within the neighborhood.
As far as the lady and her mailbox goes, wasn’t long ago that it was a federal offense to tamper, damage or defame a mailbox.. I would suppose if that law was still around, the people in this neighborhood would be a little more mindful of their obvious ignorant ways.
You can’t change ignorance, arrogance or law breakers.. But you can certainly deter it.
Most of the cars that land in our yard are the result of impaired drivers. Speed tables will make it more difficult for impaired drivers to stay in the street. As good parents that do not live on the main street we must keep our children in our fenced back yards.
For the record I run everyday in Lees Crossing and don't think speeding is an issue at all. It's the moms in their minivans on their phones with the kids on the car. That's the problem.
I live on a cul-de-sac and when my child was young I NEVER allowed him to play in the street during times where people were leaving to go to work or coming home from work. Small children cannot be seen easily!!! There is nothing wrong with children playing in their back yard as opposed to the front yard! As to riding bikes, surely you wouldn't let a child ride a bike on a main street through a subdivision! I have walked Lee's Trace many times (to the elementary school with my child) and just through the neighborhood and I never felt my safety was an issue.
BUT the fact remains that this article deals with SHOULD ALL RESIDENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE or just a few! And the answer is if we are a community then ALL RESIDENTS SHOULD HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE! Especially since the one speaking loudly for the speed table will not even be inconvenienced by them!
The title of the article is “Neighbors at odds over who votes on installation of speed tables to slow down cut-through traffic in Marietta subdivision”.
It has been recommended by residents, LCHA and City Employees for residents in the “back” of the subdivision or those that don’t want to drive the over speed tables to cut through the adjoining neighborhoods to avoid the speed tables.
It is absurd to suggest cutting through another neighborhood to avoid the “solution” for stopping cut through traffic in our neighborhood??? Really???
There is no limit on where someone should or could be scared. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you should not be scared in your own front yard. Who are you to be so special that YOUR front yard should be safer than anywhere else? And like I said, even with speed humps cars can still go fast enough to kill. Do not think that putting them in will magically solve all your problems.
And no, blocking the one through street that gives "cut through" access will not slow down emergency vehicles. Their maps will be updated to show which streets to access when responding to calls.
But speed humps WILL slow down emergency response.
But whatever, it's your neighborhood, not mine.
Before everyone goes off half cocked, why not talk to people who live in speed humped neighborhoods and see if it REALLY slows traffic.
The other side of the argument is focusing on “safety”. A voiced concern for years apparently (not just new neighbors in Lees Trace but a topic in meetings for many many years) Any member of the neighborhood who enjoys walking/running, turning into their driveway, getting their mail, OR kids walking to the elementary school in the morning and afternoon literally have to catch their breath almost every day when there is a near miss of cars speeding round corners, hitting mailboxes, and running into yards cause they loose control.
I can live with annoyance…..